50th edition of Oasis, the annual cultural festival of Birla Institute of Technology and Science-Pilani was a big success.
After the inauguration on Day 0, which saw Chief Guest Shabbir Boxxwala (producer of “Shershaah” among other movies), Vice Chancellor Souvik Bhattacharya give interesting speeches, in the presence of Chief Warden Rajesh Mishra, Deans Navin Singh and S.K. Verma, and the Student Union President Ashirwad Karande along with it’s General Secretary Naman Jalan. A couple of events - Night’s watch, a huge star gazing event organised by Astro Club and Neon party hosted by Fashion Club, set the scene for what was about to come. Day 1 of the Golden Jubilee edition of Oasis lived up to its humongous hype. The most anticipated events were by professional indie artists and rap artists were Indie nite and Rap Wars ,the indie night saw the likes of India’s most renowned Indie artists Peter Cat Recording Co. and Till Apes. TillApes, short for; Till All People Evolve Slightly, is a hip-hop/ neo-soul fit from Bangalore consisting of Amrith Raghunathan ( Doc . Awes) - Guitars, bass, and production, Sange
Wangchuk – Drums, Soorya Praveen - Bass, guitars and synth, Hanumankind – vocals, Philip John – keys, Gautam David- saxophone lit the stage on fire with their energy and songs. Then came the mesmerizing Peter Cat Recording Co. also known by millions as PCRC. The band consists of Suryakant Sawhney (vocals and guitar), Karan Singh (drums), Dhruv Bhola (bass and samples), Rohit Gupta (keys and trumpet), and Kartik
Sundareshan Pillai (keyboards, guitar, electronics and trumpet). In 2018, they sign Paris-based based label Panache and since then never stopped growing to their current mammoth status in the Indie culture. The band swayed the crowd of thousands with their mesmerizing songs. The atmosphere was a mix of calm, energy, and bliss vibes. The atmosphere was then ignited by the Rap Wars featuring 8 finalists of the show 2 each from Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad. The crowd went crazy as the finalists performed their diss tracks and rap.The event also had a segment called call Diss wherein it was a battle between the four teams. With a divided view of the winner from the audience’s perspective, the event ended with a bang. Tarang a musical event saw numerous teams from various colleges across India competing to be the best and showcase their musical prowess in front of a thousand-strong crowd. Among other numerous events and games like Laser Tag, RC racing, and Chaupal-The poetic event the day ended with people left wanting for more.
If Day 1 of this year’s Oasis captured the hearts of the people,
Day 2 took everyone off their feet like a storm. EDM x Hip-Hop Night more than justified the hype and left the crowd with tired legs and sore throats. The opening acts were Tabla Guy and Ravataar, both of whom did an amazing job getting people in the groove and in the perfect mood for Sevenn, one of the most hyped artists performing this week. The American music producer raised the energy levels by quite a few notches with his unique tracks and animated stage presence and had the crowd going crazy for the entirety of his performance. Then it was time to take a break from EDM and dive into Indian Hip-Hop, with the “Best in the Business”- Seedhe Maut, a Delhi based hip hop duo, Siddhant Sharma (Stage name Calm) and Abhijit Negi (Stage name Encore). They set the stage on fire with their tracks and ended on an epic high with the fan-favourite “Nanchaku”. Apart from the professional shows, Day 2 also had many other captivating events. A visit to the PhotoG galleria would mesmerise anyone, with stunning panels having varied themes. Then there was Splash, a fun face painting event which saw a large turnout. Purity- a stage play by Sukhmanch Theatre, Delhi, also catered very nicely to the more niche audience. The main attraction in the night was RockTaves, a rock band competition organised by ARBITS, which started at 3 am and had people enjoying till late in the morning. The second day ended with the Desert Duel Finals - a dance-off at Rotunda followed by a Flashmob-DJ at 5 am.
Day 3 of 50th Oasis of BITS Pilani perhaps the most anticipated day for many attendees commenced as the mega success it was expected to be. The reason behind the immense anticipation from the attendees other than the stalls was The Bollywood Prof
Show , with Amit Trivedi one of the biggest name in the Bollywood industry know for his melodious voice and mesmerising songs and his band consisting of Indias most talented vocalists a d instrument player the vibes were so charismatic that they easily managed to sway thousands . Mr Amit Trivedi and his band of artists performed with vigor which left the crowd wanting the night to never end. Apart from performing his released songs as a gift to the lively audience Mr Trivedi dropped two of his new songs Shehnaiyan and Jadu Salona exclusive for BITS Pilani and marked the release of his mega solo album Jadu Salona which gathered an amazing response from the crowd nearing five thousand.The second mega event was the Street Dance battle which saw teams from colleges all over India competiting to be the best. The competition was held in multiple stages at BITS Pilani Rotunda , consisting of free dance, dance-off in which two teams danced of to establish their prowess of the other teams and the Grand Finale . The crowd in the jam packed massive rotunda amphitheater was on their feet throughout the event cheering for all the participants analyzing and critiquing the moves , in addition to this as a special performance the event saw artists beat boxing , rapping and duelling to entertain the massive crowd of thousands.Covered by various huge social media influencer - stars Day 3 was the extravagant spectacle that makes Oasis one of Asia's largest cultural fest .
It was always going to be impossible to beat Amit Trivedi’s epic performance but Day 4 of this Oasis came as close as possible and ended the golden jubilee event on a spectacular high. Not many events were scheduled for the day but those that were did not disappoint in the slightest. The Film Making Club hosted the screening of “And… Dr. Kashinath Ghanekar”, a Marathi movie which was followed by an interactive session with writer-director
Abhijeet Deshpande (of Breathe, Wazir, Table No. 21 and Natsamrat fame). There was also an Adventure Zone which offered fun activities for people to enjoy. The Fashion Parade Finals also drew in quite a crowd in the morning and so did the various stalls that were open throughout the day. The main attraction was N20, the standup comedy event organised by the Hindi Activities Society. With a stellar lineup of very well known standup comedians Gaurav Kapoor and Samay Raina, the event was poised to be a crowd pleaser. And it succeeded all expectations. With a packed Auditorium, both the performers brought on their A-game and delivered what has been described by many people as the best N20 they have experienced so far and a very fitting end to what has been an absolutely magnificent and grand Oasis, one which everyone can look back upon with very fond memories.